Snug in the city – where to stay in Melbourne CBD that feels like home

Deciding where to stay in Melbourne is hard because there are just so many options, and so many cool parts of the city to stay in. Here’s our top tip for where to stay in Melbourne CBD – Adina Apartment Hotel.

Melbourne is one of those lucky cities where the CBD doesn’t go to sleep at the weekend. It’s not like London or Sydney, which tend to be ‘office hours only’ parts of town.

This means basing yourself in Melbourne’s business district – even the most suity of spots – will give you as much of the city as if you were in one of the more bohemian suburbs that surround this fun town.

The only problem such freedom causes is that the range of places to stay is not limited to accommodation away from the CBD; the paradox of choice makes finding somewhere to stay somehow harder.

We’re lucky to have lots of friends and family we can stay with when we come to Melbourne. However, when the opportunity to try out Adina Apartment Hotel Melbourne came up, we moved right in.

Adina Apartment Hotel Melbourne is on Queen Street and Little Bourke St, a stone’s throw from the beautiful Flinders Street Station, and the wealth of inner city cafés, shops and restaurants Melbourne is known for.

But what sets Adina Melbourne apart from all the other hotels in this part of the city? Isn’t it just a business hotel full of conference rooms and empty of soul?

Where to stay in Melbourne CBD

Adina Apartment Hotel Melbourne

First of all, yes, this Adina does have conference facilities. I mean, they’d be crazy not to, right? But I’ve stayed in hotels where the focus is on conferences and business, and they all feel the same – and not in a good way.

This Adina’s conference centre is tucked away though – and the focus is much more on this place being a hotel. Even speaking to people who stay here for work on a regular basis, they’re very happy to have this Adina as a base – a home from home as it were.

In fact if we hadn’t gone looking for the pool and gym, which are also on the conference floor, I don’t think we’d have even noticed the work crowd.

The pool itself is a simple lap pool, but the outdoor patio area behind would make for the perfect rooftop spot to chill out in the summer – I wonder if it’s even got cigar-friendly potential.

The rooms

This is where Adina Apartment Hotel wins over the usual city hotel. There are only three types of room here (not including the luxury penthouse apartments), but all of them are self-contained, 1- or 2-bedroom serviced suites with a fully functioning kitchen.

Our room – 1-Bedroom King

The kitchen is fitted with a full-size fridge, dishwasher, cooker and microwave as well as all the other usual accoutrements of hotel rooms.

Past the kitchen, the living and dining room end at floor-to-ceiling windows, which open – a rarity in upper-storey hotel rooms in a city.

The bedroom itself is separated by a dividing wall that splits the apartment lengthways. We like the feature of a sliding door at the window end of the wall and also a regular door to the bedroom at the other end. The two doors means the whole bedroom is useable.

Also at the sliding door end of the bedroom is the ubiquitous hotel bureau, where we were pleased to find not only plenty of powerpoints, but USB ports too.

The bathroom is a reasonable size to, but impressively – behind a cupboard door is a washing machine and dryer. This would be such a godsend in the middle of a long trip.

To be able to do a big load of washing while you’re travelling without having to sit for hours in a launderette or fork out for a laundry service is the best.

The over-all effect of the layout meant there was more than enough space for us to spread out during our weekend stay. In fact staying here for a week or more would be no problem at all. And in spite of the wealth of great places to eat are right on the doorstep, the luxury of being able to snuggle up, make yourself a snack in the kitchen and enjoy the room fully is the biggest bonus.

Other facilities

Wifi

Pretty much the first thing we look at when we’re booking accommodation is whether or not there’s free wifi. It still confounds us when we find hotels – beautiful hotels – that bill you a fortune for access to their network.

Thankfully Adina Apartment Hotel Melbourne offers free wifi throughout the building, with separate wifi for guests, the lobby and for visitors.

The room wifi is limited to 4 devices and is throttled at 1Mbps, which is a bit slow, and you do have to keep logging back on to the network, which is also a bit annoying. But the wifi works well enough. And if you need more, you can upgrade the speed for a fee.

Room service

There’s nothing better than room service, is there? And this is available 24 hours a day here. Looking through the menu, I was surprised to see no club sandwich – a hotel staple – but then we realised why.

Connected to this Adina is the amusingly named Queen Street Rescue – a restaurant bar with a typically Melbourne aesthetic. There’s a connecting door through from Adina Apartment Hotel’s lobby too, so you don’t even need to go outside if you want to get to the bar.

The food we ordered from room service was delicious and promptly delivered – my chicken burger really hit the spot, as did the other meals we ate in our apartment.

When you list it out, this Adina Apartment Hotel has to be the best hotel option in Melbourne. The enormous bed, having a dining table and living room, the practical luxury of a full kitchen and laundry… and all this with the full service of a top-end hotel at very reasonable rates. That’s pretty good.

Where do you stay when you visit Melbourne? What’s the first thing you look for when you’re booking hotels? Tell us in the comments!

We stayed as media guests for 2 nights and paid for a third night ourselves at Adina Apartment Hotel Melbourne.

ABOUT US

Welcome to Mr and Mrs Romance - the site that looks at life from a woman's and a man's perspective. You'll find our advice and thoughts on all things food, travel, lifestyle and living between these virtual pages.
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Every time we find something foodie, new and exciting in Australia, we get very excited. And it seems there’s always something going on here…

ABOUT US

Welcome to Mr and Mrs Romance - the site that looks at life from a woman's and a man's perspective. You'll find our advice and thoughts on all things food, travel, lifestyle and living between these virtual pages.
Read more...